By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
NOT long before he joined Hampton Park CFA, its new chief Graeme Wilson watched from his front yard as the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires raged in the Dandenongs and Melbourne’s south-east.
He’d just moved into the area and was building his house at the time.
“I could see the fire in Officer quite plainly,” he said.
Lieutenant Wilson was not so remote on Black Saturday, and among many hapless firefighters stretched by an unprecedented scale and number of spotfires erupting in Harkaway, Narre Warren South and Lynbrook.
The heavily decorated firey is quick to nominate that dreadful day as his most memorable event on the brigade.
On that day, the brigade’s only water tanker was fighting fierce blazes in Bunyip State Park.
Its sole pumper and five volunteers were tied up with a raging grass fire on the corner of South Gippsland Highway, Lynbrook, while all hell broke loose in the region.
So stretched were the CFA’s resources, the nearest back-up for the Lynbrook fire was a convoy from Phillip Island.
Lieut Wilson is proud that his volunteers wrestled down the blaze before it engulfed a neighbouring nursing home.
“It was by no means a small fire, but we were able to stop it.
“We got to that one early.”
There are more light-hearted memories as well – such as of extracting a goanna from a home’s drainpipe or rescuing an Amazonian parrot.
The brigade chief and life-member has no plans of walking away after 33 years volunteering with the station.
The brigade entirely runs by volunteers, including 32 members who “excel at doing their job”. It also gets invaluable support from community groups.
To raise money for a new $50,000 team-leaders vehicle, the brigade held sausage sizzles, raffles and received donations from staunch supporters such as Lions Club and Berwick Op Shop.
Not a cent of state funding was required.
To join as a CFA volunteer, go to cfa.vic.gov.au/volunteer-careers/volunteer-today.
